Electrical fixture support



July 15, 1941. SACHS 2,249,331

ELECTRICAL FIXTURE SUPRORT Filed May 25, 1940 INVENTOR harm's Jae/2wPatented July 15, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ELECTRICAL FIXTURESUPPORT Morris Sachs, New York, N. Y.

Application May 23, 1940, Serial No. 336,690

4 Claims.

This invention relates to electric lighting fixtures and moreparticularly to means for attaching the same to a ceiling, wall or othersupport.

At the present time, certain types of electric lighting fixtures, andparticularly those attached to ceilings, are provided with a cup-shapedbase usually of pressed metal, which is secured by screws to a bar orhanger attached to an outlet box. The bar or hanger is provided withthreaded holes into which the screws are received, and in securing thebase in position over the outlet box, it is necessary that the screwswhich pass through the lighting fixture base be properly lined up withsaid holes to enable the screws to properly enter them and engage thethreads therein. Efforts to place a base in position when the screws aremisaligned with the holes, very often results in stripping of either thethreads of the hanger bar holes or the threads on the screws. Thenecessity for lining up the screws with the holes thus makes the job ofinstalling the fixtures, a precise and time-consuming one.

The primary object therefore, of the present invention, is to provide astructure in which the use of threaded holes in the hanger bar iseliminated; in which careful lining up of the fastening screws withthreaded openings is rendered unnecessary, and in which speedy, accurateassembly of the parts is possible without the likelihood of strippingthreads or otherwise damaging the elements of the device.

In the accompanying drawing, forming a part hereof, Fig. 1 is asectional view of the improved electrical fixture support; Fig, 2 is asectional view on the line 22 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of thearrows; and Fig. 3 is an end view of the hanger bar, showing how one ofthe bolts is moved into engagement with one of the slots in the bar.

In the drawing, I indicates a portion of a suitable support for thelighting fixture such as a ceiling, wall, or other part of a building,the same being recessed to accommodate an outlet box 2 of conventionalform. The outlet box is secured in position by the usual fasteningscrews 3 and it is provided with a central, externallythreaded stud 4 onwhich the hanger bar 5 is received and supported. A central opening isprovided in the hanger bar which fits over the stud 4 and it is heldthereon by means of the two nuts 6 and 'l. The elements thus fardescribed are parts of a conventional outlet box and form no part of thepresent invention. Thesame is true of the wire connectors 8 and 9 shownin the outlet box.

The hanger'bar, to which the invention relates, is an elongated strip ofmetal which is bent at the points [0 and has projecting ends extendingbeyond the outlet box as clearly shown in Fig. 1. At I l is shown thebase of the lighting fixture, said base being a cup-shaped memberprovided with spaced holes l2 through which bolts l3 extend to attachthe base to the hanger bar. Each bolt carries a nut l5. At each end ofthe hanger bar is provided a pair of slots 16 and I1, the slots of eachpair opening at and extending inwardly from the opposite longitudinaledges of the bar, as clearly seen in Fig. 2. A portion of the bar at oneside of each slot is bent laterally as shown at l8 to provide a lugadapted to engage against one of the nuts l5 and hold said nut againstrotative movement while the bolt on which the nut is mounted is rotatedto tighten the nut against the back of the hanger bar.

In securing the lighting fixture in place, it is placed over the hangerbar and rotated around a vertical axis as indicated by the arrows IS inFig. 2, to cause the two bolts l3 to enter into the slots I! at each endof the hanger bar. This is done while the nuts [5 are in loosenedposition as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3, so that the same will passover the lugs I 8 adjacent the open end of the slot IT. The bolts arethen allowed to drop down slightly so that each of the nuts thereon isengaged by a lug l8 and held from rotating while the bolts are manuallyrotated with a screw driver to tighten up the nuts against the back ofthe hanger bar and thus securely attach the lighting fixture in place.The lugs 18 engaging against one of the fiat sides of the nuts l5prevent rotative movement of the nuts and also serve to hold the boltsfrom moving out of the slots ll.

It will be noted that since two bolts are employed for attaching thelighting fixture to the hanger bar, only two slots are engaged by thebolts, namely the slots [1 one of which is located at each end of thehanger bar. Occasions arise, however, when it is desired to reverse theposition of the hanger bar on the outlet box and in such cases the twoslots IE will be engaged by the bolts rather than the slots l1.

Since the lighting fixture base is placed in position and the boltsbrought into engagement with the slots in the hanger bar by simplerotative movement of the base, it will be obvious that the base can bevery speedily and accurately secured in position without requiring thelining up of the bolts with internally threaded openings. Since theslots may be made large enough to accommodate various sizes of bolts,readily-available sizes of bolts may be used. Since also, the use ofthreaded holes in the hanger bar are unnecessary, the hanger bar can beproduced more cheap- 1y than the threaded type. These and other advantages will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art and itwill be clear that various changes may be made in this structure withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. A device of the character described comprising, a hanger bar for thereception of the base of a lighting fixture, means for attaching saidhanger bar to an outlet box, the hanger bar having open-ended slotsadjacent to its opposite ends, a lighting fixture base provided withholes, bolts extending through said holes and entering the slots, nutson the bolts and means on the hanger bar adjacent to the slots thereinfor engaging against the nuts and holding the same against rotativemovement when the bolts are rotated to tighten the nuts thereon againstthe hanger bar.

2. An electric fixture support comprising, a hanger bar and means forsupporting the same, a fixture having a base portion for attachment tosaid hanger bar, said base portion having spaced holes, bolts passingthrough the holes, nuts on said bolts, the hanger bar having a slot neareach of its opposite ends, said slots extending inwardly in oppositedirections from the side edges of the hanger bar whereby the bolts mayeach enter a slot by manual rotative movement of the base portion andthe nuts then tightened against the hanger bar by manual rotation of thebolts, and means for holding the nuts against rotative movement with thebolts, said means consisting of laterally extended lug portions providedon the hanger bar adjacent to the slots.

3. An electric fixture support comprising, a hanger bar and means forsupporting the same, a fixture having a base portion for attachment tosaid hanger bar, said base portion having spaced holes, bolts extendingthrough the holes, nuts on said bolts, the hanger bar having slotsextending inwardly and in opposite directions from its side edges andtransversely of the hanger bar and having one of said slots located neareach of its ends whereby the bolts may enter into said slots by rotativemovement of the base portion, and lugs on the hanger bar locatedadjacent to the slots for engaging the nuts when the bolts are locatedin the slots to hold the nuts against rotative movement when the boltsare manually turned.

4. In a device of the character described, a hanger bar for electricfixtures provided with means for attaching it to a support, said barcomprising an elongated metal strip having at least two transverselyextending slots at each of its opposite ends, each slot opening at andextending from a side edge of the strip, a part of the strip adjacent tothe open end of each slot having a laterally projected lug portion forengagement with a nut on a bolt extended through the slot to hold alighting fixture in position over the hanger bar.

MORRIS SACHS.

